https://www.npr.org/2023/07/18/ [login to see] /europe-rare-earth-sweden
There are a number of sensations you experience as you make the 30-minute descent by pickup truck into the main tunnel of the LKAB iron ore mine in Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost city. Your skin becomes noticeably drier, your ears pop and it's hard to shake a feeling of isolation as the truck twists and turns on the darkened road, guided only by reflectors on the tunnel's reinforced gray, stone walls.
When you finally reach the bottom, more than 4,000 feet beneath Earth's surface, you discover a complex of brightly lit offices, a cafeteria and even a car wash.
The state-owned LKAB mine, which sits 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle, is one of the world's largest sources of iron ore, used for making steel.